{"id":7517,"date":"2018-01-16T09:20:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T17:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=7517"},"modified":"2018-01-16T09:20:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T17:20:58","slug":"jfk-saved-mlks-life-won-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/01\/16\/jfk-saved-mlks-life-won-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"How JFK Saved MLK\u2019s Life And So Won The Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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How JFK Saved MLK\u2019s Life
\nAnd So Won The Presidency<\/strong>
\nBy Greg Palast<\/em><\/p>\n

This harrowing and little known drama of terror and courage, confirmed for me by Martin Luther King III, changed American politics \u2014 and America \u2014 forever.<\/p>\n

On October 19, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Georgia for driving with an Alabama and sentenced to six months hard labor. No one expected King to survive the sentence \u2014 he\u2019d be lynched at the outset.<\/p>\n

His father, Martin King Sr., had one desperate chance to save his son. Daddy King had endorsed Richard Nixon, a family friend, for the presidency. Nixon could count on King, a Republican like many African-Americans, who chose the party of Lincoln over the racist Democratic party of Jim Crow segregation.<\/p>\n

A desperate King called Vice-President Nixon \u2014 who refused to answer. But MLK\u2019s wife, Coretta, had a single hope. She called a friend, pacifist activist Harris (later Senator) Wofford who called Bobby Kennedy.<\/p>\n

RFK didn\u2019t hesitate, calling from a pay phone on Long Island to his brother, demanding John save MLK Jr.<\/p>\n

It was just three weeks before the presidential election, a race too close to call. This was a crisis. Three Southern governors warned the Kennedys that any help for Dr. King and JFK would lose three Deep South states.<\/p>\n

John Kennedy, who\u2019d just won the Pulitzer Prize for\u00a0Profiles in Courage<\/em>, knew this was his test. He gave Bobby the go-ahead to save King. Bobby called Atlanta and told the judge he\u2019d post King\u2019s bond \u2014 though the judge had never offered bond. But this Democratic judge knew that with his party, the Kennedys could employ and destroy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, according to Martin King III, his father was pulled from his Atlanta jail at 2am and told he would be transferred to Reidsville Prison hours from the city. King was certain he would not live to see the dawn.<\/p>\n

But the judge had let it be known that King now was now under the protective gaze of the Kennedy\u2019s. And MLK, said his son, was \u201cthe first prisoner ever to be thrilled and thankful to enter gates of Reidsville Prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the warning came true. Word of Kennedy\u2019s saving King cost JFK the electoral votes of Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. But then there was the miracle. Daddy King had written a pamphlet beginning, in block letters:\u201cNo Comment\u201d Nixon
\nversus
\nA Candidate with a Heart,
\nSenator Kennedy
\n*
\nTHE CASE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING<\/strong>
\nThe pamphlet, on blue paper, was carried to the churches of half a million African-Americans.<\/p>\n

Daddy King said, \u201cI have a suitcase full of votes for the Senator that I\u2019m carrying to Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mass outpouring of sermon-inspired African-Americans won Kennedy razor-close victories in Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Even historian Ted White cites King family\u2019s powerful campaign of gratitude, and the pamphlet now known as \u201cThe Blue Bomb,\u201d as the deciding factor in John F. Kennedy\u2019s victory over Nixon.<\/p>\n

The Democrats once-solid hold on the South was no longer solid \u2014 but a new voting block, would hold hard as a hammer for the Democratic Party for the next half century to today.<\/p>\n

It was this profile in courage \u2014 the Kings and the Kennedys \u2014 that truly made America great and morally mighty.<\/p>\n

Those mighty Kings and Kennedys are gone. So it left to us to stand up to the gelatinous orange pustule of bloviating bigotry that has, against the democratic will, seized this White House and Congress.<\/p>\n

Today, we honor a man whose courage must now be ours; and then we can make American truly great again.<\/p>\n

Darrow Palast contributed research for this article. Photo of Palast at King’s church by Zach D Roberts for Aljazeera.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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\nGreg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie:\u00a0The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election<\/a>\u00a0(the brand new, updated, post-election edition).<\/p>\n

The update of Greg Palast\u2019s film,\u00a0The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election\u00a0<\/a>was released this week on Amazon and\u00a0Amazon Prime<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How JFK Saved MLK\u2019s Life And So Won The Presidency By Greg Palast This harrowing and little known drama of terror and courage, confirmed for me by Martin Luther King III, changed American politics \u2014 and America \u2014 forever. On October 19, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7518,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions\/7518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}